Provided is an image processing apparatus that can efficiently utilize the storage capacity in image processing. A dividing unit divides inputted image data into a plurality of partial data. An analysis unit analyzes whether or not each of the plurality of partial data divided by the division unit is suitable for compression at any of a plurality of stages of image processing in which feature of image changes. A compression unit compresses the partial data at the stage when the analysis unit analyzes that it is suitable for compression. A decompressing unit decompresses the partial data compressed by the compression unit at the stage when it is compressed. A processing execution unit executes processing at the stage of image processing on the partial data decompressed by the decompressing unit.

In some examples, a print cartridge includes a memory device comprising quantized coefficients derived from a lossy compression, at a selected step size, of a difference color table including a plurality of difference nodes in which each difference node represents a difference value that is a difference of a value of a node of a color table and a value of a corresponding node of a reference table, the quantized coefficients useable to produce a reconstructed difference color table including a first set of difference nodes each representing a difference value that is within an error threshold at the selected step size, and a second set of difference nodes each representing a difference value that is outside an error threshold at the selected step size. The memory device further comprises corrective information to correct the second set of difference nodes of the reconstructed difference color table.

A method comprises acquiring print setting information related to printing of image data, and, in a case where the print setting information specifies printing using at least special ink, which is ink other than ink for a process color, during printing of the image data, determining a first method as a method of processing for reducing a data size of the image data and, in a case where the print setting information specifies printing using ink for the process color without using the special ink during printing of the image data, determining a second method different from the first method as a method of processing for reducing the data size of the image data.

An image encoding method includes a color difference signal Cr corresponding to a first pixel and a color difference signal Cb corresponding to a second pixel that are determined based on a pixel value of the first pixel, a pixel value of the second pixel, and pixel values of a third pixel and a fourth pixel that are adjacent to the first pixel. Then, an average value Co of the color difference signal Cr corresponding to the first pixel and the color difference signal Cb corresponding to the second pixel, and a difference value Cg between the color difference signal Cr and the color difference signal Cb are determined.

A method includes obtaining an embedded sparse image data for generating a target image data from an image signal processor, wherein the embedded sparse image data includes a sparse image data including pixels which include at least first color pixels, second color pixels and third color pixels; extracting a split data including first and second data parts from the sparse image data; joining the first and second data parts to obtain a compressed data; inversely converting the compressed data based on a compression curve to obtain an inversely converted residual data; adding a random value within an error range to the inversely converted residual data to obtain a reconstructed residual data; and reconstructing a dense image data based on the reconstructed residual data and the sparse image data, wherein the dense image data includes pixels including the first color pixels.

An image forming system includes: an image-data transmission unit that transmits image data; and an image-data receiving unit that receives the image data, the image-data transmission unit being connected to the image-data receiving unit through a transmission path having lanes used for a color machine, at the time of image data transmission, the image-data transmission unit adding an error check code to image data, and transmitting the image data to the image-data receiving unit, in a first unit of the image data, the image-data receiving unit calculating an error check code in the first unit, comparing the calculated error check code with the error check code transmitted, and when the calculated error check code disagrees with the error check code transmitted, transmitting an error to the image-data transmission unit, and when the image-data transmission unit receives the error, the image-data transmission unit retransmitting image data corresponding to the error.

An information processing apparatus connected to an image forming unit that forms an image based on image data and a reading unit that reads an image as image data is provided. The apparatus acquires a pixel count of image data formed by pixels; encodes the at least one color component and the pixel count to be multiplexed on the image data; outputs the image data to the image forming unit; restores the multiplexed at least one color component and the multiplexed pixel count from the image data read by the reading unit; and replaces the pixels of the pixel count of a color component corresponding to the at least one color component included in the image data and restored from the image data.

A technique for image processing, comprising: receiving input image data, wherein the image data is companded into a first bit depth, wherein the image data includes incomplete color values for pixels of the image data, and wherein the image data is associated with a first color space, interpolating the image data to generate color values for the incomplete color values for pixels of the image data, expanding the image data from the first bit depth to a second bit depth, wherein the color values of the expanded image data have a linear dynamic range, and wherein the second bit depth is higher than the first bit depth, converting the color values for pixels of the expanded image data from the first color space to a second color space, and compressing the color values for pixels of the image data to a third bit depth, the third bit depth lower than the second bit depth, and wherein the compressed color values have a nonlinear dynamic range.

Techniques for image processing including receiving input image data, wherein the input image data includes data associated with a clear color channel, receiving a color offset value associated with a color channel, wherein color values for the color channel are not provided in the input image data, based on the color offset value, generating intermediate estimated color values for the color channel, wherein generating the intermediate estimated color values includes: clipping color values that have a magnitude greater than the color offset value, and adjusting color values that have a magnitude less than the color offset value based on the color offset value, applying a color correction function to the intermediate estimated color values based on the color offset value to determine color corrected estimated color values, and outputting the color corrected estimated color values.

A binary image of an input image is generated, and a character region within the binary image and a region surrounding each character are acquired as character segmentation rectangle information. A thinning process is executed on a region within the binary image which is identified based on the character segmentation rectangle information to acquire a thinned image. An edge detected image of the region identified based on the character segmentation rectangle information is acquired. Whether each character identified based on the character segmentation rectangle information is a character to be separated from a background by the binarization process or not is determined based on a result of a logical AND of the thinned image and the edge detected image.